Continuing with the theme from my last post, I get a nearly uncontrollable desire to facepalm every time I encounter, as I do far, far too often, the idea that archaeology isn’t about uncovering a real past, but about constructing historical narratives about the past. If this is what it’s all about, why am I getting all sweaty and covered in dirt at the bottom of a hole? I can sit in my armchair and “construct narratives” (which is just another way of saying make up stories) all day long.
It’s been my experience that the archaeologists who talk about constructing narratives are almost invariably those who see the field not as a way to find things out about the past, but as a way to advance a political agenda. Now there’s nothing wrong with having a political agenda. I might very well agree that someone’s agenda is noble and well worth pursuing. But I don’t agree that politics, whether for good or bad, is a proper function of archaeology.
Archaeology exists to discover the facts regarding the past, humanly speaking, regardless of whether or not those facts are useful for advancing some political, religious, or social goal. The past uncovered by archaeology can be used in a variety of ways, just like research in any other field. Our role as archaeologists is simply to learn the truth about the past. After that it is all of our responsibility as human beings to ensure that what has been learned is used to do good.
My goals as an archaeologist therefore, are twofold. First, I want to recover all the data that is recoverable about the human past. Second, I want to create a theoretical framework that explains all the data completely, and yet simply. Obviously these are monumental tasks, that may never be completed. They certainly won’t be finished within my lifetime. Nevertheless, this is what I see as the purpose and justification for what I do as an archaeologist.
